Main Conclusions and Action Points of the 4th EBC Board Meeting & 2nd General Assembly

Last week EBC held its final Board Meeting and General Assembly of 2017. It was a full two days starting with the Digital Health event at the European Parliament, and leading into the election of the new Executive Board on the evening of the 22nd (results below). The day continued over the EBC Board Dinner, which served as a continuation for the event held prior and included three speakers on eHealth.

The two days of meetings continued the following day with the General Assembly, which produced an exciting amount of fruitful feedback and discussion of EBC’s current and planned activities moving forward. The main outcomes are shared below.

Main Conclusions and Action Points:

Delegates to the Board and General Assembly of the European Brain Council (EBC) met on 22nd-23rd November to elect a new Executive Board, discuss current issues on EBC’s agenda and decide on the future direction of the organization. On this occasion, the following decisions were adopted:

Election of the new Executive of EBC

The following Officers were elected by the Board:

President: Prof. Monica di Luca

Vice-Presidents: Prof. Wolfgang H. Oertel
Prof. Patrice Boyer

Treasurer: Joke Jaarsma

Overall Conclusions and Core Actions

EBC’s progress with regard to various projects and advocacy issues was discussed and endorsed:

The “innovation agenda” under which EBC will initiate work towards a revision of the EMA-guidelines, (2) respond to the consultation on Supplementary Protection Certificates and (3) continue the GOLUP-campaign, was confirmed.

The establishment of the “Value of Treatment” project in a continued fashion was approved. Delegates also looked forward to developing new case studies and/or carrying on disseminating the results and outcomes of the VoT white paper published in June.

EBC’s plan to apply for Horizon 2020 calls was positively received, particularly those related to brain research coordination and health technology assessment.

Plans for organizing an event in view of the 9th Framework Programme for Research, with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of including “Brain research” specifically as one of the missions, were positively received.

A few policy documents, submitted for consideration, were endorsed:

The “Digital Health Society Declaration”

The statement “Prioritising patient safety and public health across Europe post-Brexit”

The “Call to Action on Migration and Health”

The “Call to Action to enhance labour opportunities for people with chronic diseases” (with an accompanying letter to be provided to the European Chronic Disease Alliance (ECDA) which authored the document)

The joint statement on “medical training and professional development for patient safety”